Tyler arrived at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah on Wednesday, September 12, 2018. He will be there until around Halloween. While there he will mostly be learning Cebuano, the language he'll be speaking in the Philippines as well as how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of the Philippines. As missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they use the title of Elder.
Please feel free to email Tyler - he would love to hear from you! I can't guarantee that he'll be able to respond to each and every email. As missionaries they have one day a week (known as Preparation Day - P day) to attend to personal matters such as writing home, doing their laundry and grocery shopping so time is limited.
tyler.butts@myldsmail.net
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Kamusta Pamilya,
Maayong nindot, akong kauban sa Elder Hasegawa taga Alberta, Canada ko Siya sa maayo. He reminds me a lot of elder Roberts. Boy, it has a been absolute whirlwind so far. My companion is great, we are both going to Cebu east, and then our other two room mates, one is going to Cebu east and is going to Takglluban. Our district only has one guy from Utah, everyone else is from like Seattle and Chicago and the likes. We have one sister from Melbourne and so every time she talks i think of the kid in the Tina debate from Australia, "you want a chestie?". Watch that episode for me. Elder Hasegawa was made our DL last night so its been a while since i've gone to bed before eleven which is rough. The food is all 'brown' like all starch, so we've had terrible indigestion for the past couple of days, so that whats happening there. It's weird being like right in the mountains. we are in the new building for our classroom and it faces the mountain and no one seems to notice them, and im like they're right there, "SOMEONE GET IN HERE WITH ME".
The reason i haven't included any pictures is because i'm in the laundry room with a sprained ankle, and didn't bring my bag. I rolled it playing basketball, so I think god has delivered me out of the hands of basketball, for a little while. But it should be fine in a week.
We went to the temple this morning. It was only a 'two room' temple, which i didn't expect. But it was good expierence, being able to go and just think about every thing, i really felt the spirit with all the misyonaryos present.
I did meet sister Anderson, but she is not our teacher, there are a ton Cebuano speaking languages here, most of the Visayan islands speak it. Although, there are a lot more Tagalog speaking missionaries, which seem to be very similar. It looks like i will probably learn that while I'm out there. The language is coming along very nicely, albeit just vocab right now, but we have to learn like 350 words by next Saturday. I cant say whether or not its hard, its difficult to understand, but what i do know makes sense. My companion seems very committed to learning it, so we push each other.
I met one of President Hadley's cousins, he is one of the counselor's for the MTC presidency which is kinda neat. He was shaking hands before our first devotional and upon learning i was from Minneapolis and somehow he remembered Jake (Hadleys Son) and thats how we got there.
I am probaly going to need a bigger bag, they want us bringing preach my gospel and a lot of language stuff around so let me know wether or not my load will get lighter on my mission. And we do not get any devices on our mission so looks like i will always have my quad with me, which is fine but combine that with all the other stuff i need it gets pretty tight. So i say like a patagonia dry sack sorta shoulder bag that seems to fit, theres also a lot of timbuk2 bags that are a little bit bigger.
I do need the following. A water bottle, i dont want to pay 35 dollars for a hydroflask here, so if i get one that would be great. Also golf pants were outlawed two weeks ago at the MTC, BUT we can use them on our mission. Just thought id let you know.
It's weird having everyone here for the same purpose and having a similar knowledge, there is certainly a spirit here. It's almost like a temple in the fact that it is not of this world; set apart from it. Im grateful for the chace to be here with all these amazing people and to further my commitment to christ.
Just some house keeping, if you can a way to add everyone who wants to get an email from me into my google conatcts, just on my regular google account, i can just send out a mass email. I dont know what you want to share from this email, im on a lot of ibprohen so this is getting incresingly harder to type but next week i will hopefully be less sore and have a bunch of pictures to share and also get a mass email sent out. Its just been a long couple of days, so forgive me. Adam has my MTC address, use the most recent picture, and i will get to get any mail because my Kauban is the DL, so hooray for me.
I love you all, I'm so glad to be able to be having this experience. Please remember to pray if you are ever doubting anything, i know He will show his reasons in due time.
Gugma,
Elder Booty
